Discover the Big Apple: Top 17 Entertaining and Surprising Fun Facts About New York City

1. Pigeon Pandemonium

In the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do – including tripping over a pigeon every other step: New York City is home to approximately 4 million of these cooing city dwellers, displaying an unparalleled sense of homing and distance-trekking capabilities but also becoming notorious for carrying diseases like fungal Histoplasmosis, which can lead to severe lung infections.
Source => nynjwildliferemoval.com

2. Sluggish City Traffic

Why did the New Yorker cross the road? To beat that snail-paced traffic, of course! In the competitive world of sluggish city transport, New York City ranks only third, sluggishly crawling behind Los Angeles and Moscow: With vehicles trudging along at a mere 4.7 mph in Midtown Manhattan, folks are basically just street luging on tortoises. Blame it on the handy but burdensome Uber and Lyft apps, which have hailed a whopping 25% increase in taxi and for-hire vehicle trips in the central business district. As the city swells, lawmakers mull over introducing a congestion pricing scheme to curb the streets' slow-motion stampede and help the public transit system keep pace.
Source => latimes.com

Did you know the first Carvel ice cream shop was founded in New York State in 1929? 🍦 Discover the sweet history behind this iconic dessert destination!

=> Fun Facts about New-York-State

3. Honking Havoc

In the city that never sleeps, it's no wonder the Big Apple's alarm clocks come in the form of angry honks: noise currently ranks as New Yorkers' top grievance on the city's non-emergency line. In fact, between 2010 and 2015, an astounding 15,959 complaints were made, specifically about honking. The number of complaints leaped from 1,894 in 2012 to a whopping 4,450 in 2015. Despite honking only being legal in emergency situations, the law is infrequently enforced, with a mere 17% of honking complaints translating into a summons issued by the NYPD. Thus, honking sadly endures as the soundtrack to the bustling streets of New York City.
Source => verifythis.com

4. Walmart Who?

New York City: where dreams are made, concrete jungles reign supreme, and the Walmart Superstore just can't find enough grass to graze on: There are no Walmart Superstores in New York City, primarily due to its grid structure, limited land availability, high real estate costs, and the local trend of supporting small businesses over large corporations.
Source => ncesc.com

5. Dutch Roots & Deals

Once upon a time in Ye Olde Amersterdam: New York City, originally a Dutch shindig called New Amsterdam, was handed over to the Duke of York in 1664 - earning the Big Apple its new title. Legend has it that the canny Dutch governor Peter Minuit swindled the local tribe out of Manhattan for a paltry $24 back in 1626, but let's not forget the small fact of New Netherland stretching beyond NYC to include parts of Long Island, Connecticut, and even New Jersey! And you thought New Yorkers were just really good at expanding their subway lines; NYC was actually the first city in the colonies to score a royal charter in 1686.
Source => history.com

6. Ellis Island Arrival

Long before there was a "Little Italy" or a "Chinatown," a wee huddle approached the shores of New York, each "statue-esque" in their pursuit of a dream: Ellis Island Immigration Station opened in 1892, just seven years after the Statue of Liberty's construction. This mighty gateway greeted over 12 million immigrants eager to taste the freedom and opportunity of a brand new life in America.
Source => obamawhitehouse.archives.gov

7. Subway Supreme

If you're tired of playing "Pick a Card, Any Card," try your hand at "Pick a Track, Any Track" in the concrete jungle of New York City: The NYC Subway is the busiest rapid transit system in the Western World, boasting 472 stations, 248 miles of routes, and a total of 850 miles including non-revenue trackage. With over 6.3 million riders on weekdays, you'll have quite the company as you zip around the Big Apple.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

8. Queens: Language Central

If the babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ever needed to polish its linguistic prowess, Queens, New York would be the place to do so: The borough is home to the most diverse linguistic landscape in the world, with up to 800 languages spoken, including Greek, Filipino, Urdu, Indonesian, Russian, Japanese, and many more, as mapped out in "Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas" by Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro.
Source => businessinsider.com

9. The Pizza Principle

What do pizza and public transit have in common, you ask? More than you'd expect, unless you're an economist with a New Yorker's appetite: The "Pizza Principle" has been a curious correlation in New York City for over 40 years, where the average price of a cheese slice at a pizzeria aligns uncannily with the cost of a subway fare, both hovering around $2.75. The principle was first observed after Lombardi's Pizzeria opened in 1905, and while it remains a peculiar mystery, it continues to captivate both residents and number-crunchers alike.
Source => nyunews.com

10. Track 61: VIP Express

Waldorf Astoria: where presidents aren't the only ones riding the underground railroad! Beneath this iconic hotel lies the secretive Track 61, a hidden train platform used by VIPs like Franklin D. Roosevelt to evade public attention and enter the hotel via a private elevator, all thanks to the president's disability. The train car and tracks still remain a well-kept secret, visible only to the lucky few MetroNorth train passengers who hold the golden ticket to a piece of hidden history.
Source => gothamist.com

11. Green Giant: Empire State Building

New York's Empire State Building is upping the green ante, proving that size does matter... in energy efficiency: This colossal skyscraper is not only the tallest LEED-certified building in the U.S. but also flexes its eco-friendly titanium in gold, with a LEED Gold certification awarded in 2011 for Existing Buildings: Operation and Maintenance, all while slaying carbon emission levels by purchasing an astounding 55 million kilowatt hours per year of renewable energy offsets.
Source => archerhotel.com

12. Capital Flashback

Once upon a New York minute, this Big Apple tried on Uncle Sam's hat: New York City actually served as the capital of the United States from 1785 to 1790, playing host to a vibrant cultural melting pot owing to its mass influx of immigrants through its star-studded history.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

13. Adopt-A-Bench in Central Park

Feeling benched or overwhelmed by the Big Apple? Here's a way to park yourself in its heart forever: Central Park's Adopt-A-Bench program lets you immortalize your loved ones or commemorate special occasions by adopting either a rustic handmade bench for $25,000 or a regular bench for $7,500, complete with a personalized plaque. Started in 1986, this bench-tastic scheme has seen more than 2,000 adoptions spanning 22 years, leaving lasting legacies from romantic proposals to tributes to 9/11 rescue dogs.
Source => gothamist.com

14. Gators in the Sewers?

New Yorkers, beware: next time you drop your keys down a storm drain, you might just encounter a scaly sewer citizen with a penchant for chomping! But alas, the city's gator population is quite overblown: several abandoned alligators have been found in the sewers over the years, undoubtedly inspiring the popular urban legend, though the toxic waters make long-term survival virtually impossible.
Source => nytimes.com

15. Times Square Madness

In the concrete jungle where dreams are made, there's nothing you can't do... except dodge the hordes of eager New Year's Eve revelers at Times Square: This epicenter of celebrations has been hosting the iconic ball drop since 1907, attracting over a million visitors annually and entertaining a global audience of a billion plus on various digital platforms. And spoiler alert: The so-called tourist trap isn't just for out-of-towners, as locals, too, flock to the area for its abundance of Broadway theaters and endless entertainment.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

16. Birthplace of Hip-Hop

Before MC Hammer was too legit to quit and Lil Nas X took us on an old town road, there was a humble Bronx street where the needle first dropped on the groovy beats: DJ Kool Herc is credited with inventing the “break” in hip-hop music and hosting the first block parties that showcased modern funk and soul records at his residence on Sedgwick Avenue, thus making it the birthplace of hip-hop culture.
Source => musicorigins.org

17. Population Tetris

If New York City were a game of Tetris, it would be on level 999 with no room to breathe: the most densely populated incorporated place in the United States, NYC boasts a whopping 27,016 people per square mile sprinkled across just 302.6 square miles of land, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Source => en.wikipedia.org